


To Sleep Through The Night

by Nakimochiku



Series: Doodles [4]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-29
Updated: 2014-03-29
Packaged: 2018-01-17 11:18:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1385695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nakimochiku/pseuds/Nakimochiku
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first night Mikasa comes to live with the Jaegers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Sleep Through The Night

Carla Jaeger looks haggard when she opens the door for her husband and son, hair loose down her back and shawl wrapped around her shoulders. "Where have you been?" She snaps, worry giving way to anger. "I’ve been--" she spots Mikasa, still holding on to Eren's hand, and looks to her husband, who quietly shakes his head. "Oh." She sighs out mournfully. She draws Mikasa and Eren both into a hug. She's warm. Warm like the scarf Eren wrapped around her. Warm like his hands around her still bloody fingers. Mikasa sinks into it, and tries not to cry.

"Let’s get you cleaned up and comfortable then." Carla turns on lamps as she bustles around, shawl abandoned on a hook by the door and hair pulled back into another ponytail. Grisha merely sinks into a chair, looking weary to his bones. Eren waits beside Mikasa while Carla storms around the kitchen, fixing a meal, lighting a fire, setting out dishes and digging in a linen chest for a night gown for Mikasa to wear.

She looks like a phantom in Carla's old nightgown. It extends way past her hands, drapes around her on the floor, until Eren starts to giggle as he looks at her. Mikasa smiles a bit too. It stretches her face strangely.

She’s plied with little bits of leftover food, all strange to her. Nothing like her mother’s cooking. Carla is nothing like her mother. Except perhaps around the set of her mouth as she brushes Mikasa's hair and rolls up the sleeve of her night gown. "It’s cold tonight..." Carla says thoughtfully, more to herself than anyone else. "You'll appreciate the extra fabric then."

It doesn’t feel cold. Not in the little house where a little family, so like her own was, lives and takes her in. Eren's presence is a comfort at her side. She sniffles, tries valiantly not to cry, but the tears come just the same. Carla blinks at her, and rounds the table to kneel at her side.

Her fingers run over her hair, and draw her back into a hug. Her breast is soft, her night gown smells like lavender. Mikasa breathes the scent in and hiccups. "You let it out sweetie. Go on and cry." Mikasa sobs. "You just go right ahead and cry."

She howls like a wounded animal, clutches at Carla's night gown. Her hands are big like Mikasa's mother, but thicker. She's warm and gentle like Mikasa's mother, but softer. And perhaps drawing all those comparisons, remembering what she can’t have, won’t have again, makes her cry harder. Carla pulls her into her lap there on the floor and rocks with her back and forth.

"It’s okay, it’s alright." She mutters, and they both know she's lying. "Just keep crying, auntie's here." Mikasa's breath hitches and catches while she hiccups and swallows sobs. "Just cry yourself out, and you'll sleep through the night." She drops a kiss to the top of Mikasa's head. "And we'll figure everything else out in the morning."


End file.
